I’m working on building a custom validator within my Story model. As I
understand it, before anything can be put into the database, that data
has to go through the model and the various validators. Is there a way
to access this data?
The data should contain a foreign key that links to the member who is
posting the story. I want to be able to compare the data from this
member against the story data.
A simple point in the right direction would be tremendously helpful.
Thank you for your time!
I’m working on building a custom validator within my Story model. As I
understand it, before anything can be put into the database, that data
has to go through the model and the various validators. Is there a way
to access this data?
That’s not quite how it works: all the attributes and so on are
changed and so on, so foo.some_attribute does return the new data
(even though it hasn’t hit the database yet) (or have I missed the
point?)
That’s not quite how it works: all the attributes and so on are
changed and so on, so foo.some_attribute does return the new data
(even though it hasn’t hit the database yet) (or have I missed the
point?)
What I’m trying to do (which may or may not be correct), is create a
validator within my model file: story.rb, that checks to see if the
member has enough credits to pay for his or her story post. The only
way I can do this is if I knew how much money the member has in his or
her account. However, I don’t know how to pull that data from within
the story model (if it’s possible / the Rails way to do so).
(This is per my current knowledge): When a member submits a form, that
form should go to the create action from within the controller. When
you try to save the data to the database, it’s checked against the
validators within the model and either returns true or false. Thus,
the story model should receive and check the data from the form. If
that’s true, is there a way to see what data the model is handling?
Perhaps I should be doing this check from within the controller? Such
as:
unless current_user.credits >= (@story.credits * @story.critiques_wanted)
errors.add_to_base(“You do not have enough credits to post this
story.”)
end
if @story.save
flash[:notice] = ‘Story was successfully created.’
redirect_to manage_stories_path
else
render :action => “new”
end
end
I haven’t tried this code. I figure it will work (probably with a few
adjustments), though am not sure it’s the Rails way. I’m under the
impression that all validation should be done within the model. Is
this correct thinking, or is what I have above okay?
Thanks for your help Frederick. You always seem to be close whenever
I’m plagued with my many questions.
You’re imagining a difficultly. If you want to know how many credits
the user has, then do it in exactly he same way as any other time, if
you want to check some value of the model then again just do it, eg
def validate
if member.credits >= credits * critiques_wanted
…
end
end
I believe you are right - I’m creating my own frustration. For the
life of me, I couldn’t pull the members information into the Story
model. Even your little snippet of code above didn’t work at first.
Making sure I wasn’t crazy I started doing a whole lot of little
experiments to see what actually was happening. I was even reading my
terminal that displayed everything my server was doing. Then, just
like Rails magic and mystery, everything just worked - flawlessly.
Why…? I spent the following 30 minutes trying to figure out what I
had changed. Perhaps instead of member.credits, I wrote memers.credits
members being plural instead of singular. I hope that wasn’t the
problem. >< If so, too much drama for one measly little ‘s’.
That said I don’t think a validation is the right tool in this case.
You wouldn’t want this check to run again if the story was being saved
because it had been updated.
I still believe that validation is the correct way to do it. For
example, if the member changes the credits and critiques_wanted in an
update, I would still like to insure they have enough credits to do
so. If I’m missing something, please let me know.
That said I don’t think a validation is the right tool in this case.
You wouldn’t want this check to run again if the story was being saved
because it had been updated.
I still believe that validation is the correct way to do it. For
example, if the member changes the credits and critiques_wanted in an
update, I would still like to insure they have enough credits to do
so. If I’m missing something, please let me know.
There may well be some updates that require checking of credits, but I
wouldn’t think all would. Eg if the user spots a typo in what
they’ve written and want to fix it, you wouldn’t want them to be
prevented from doing that because of a failing validation. I’m just
guessing of course - you’re the one with full knowledge of how the
application is used and the business model.
member has enough credits to pay for his or her story post. The only
You’re imagining a difficultly. If you want to know how many credits
the user has, then do it in exactly he same way as any other time, if
you want to check some value of the model then again just do it, eg
def validate
if member.credits >= credits * critiques_wanted
…
end
end
That said I don’t think a validation is the right tool in this case.
You wouldn’t want this check to run again if the story was being saved
because it had been updated.
There may well be some updates that require checking of credits, but I
wouldn’t think all would. Eg if the user spots a typo in what
they’ve written and want to fix it, you wouldn’t want them to be
prevented from doing that because of a failing validation. I’m just
guessing of course - you’re the one with full knowledge of how the
application is used and the business model.
That could very well be true. To be honest, I’m not entirely sure how
I want the application to work in that regard. I’ll keep your words in
mind as I work my way through trial and error. Thanks for your
constant support!
Along the same lines as Fred’s comment, I would recommend accepting the
story but not offering it up for review until the user pays up. I think
you
would have a better chance of getting them to come back and just pay
than to
do the entire process over again.
Sunny
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